Chapter 1
Are You Ready to Sell?
Run a pre-flight check on your problem, product, willingness to pay, and your own readiness to sell.
The Startup Growth Series · Book 001
You built something real. Now build a repeatable way to sell it.
Startup Growth 001: The Early Traction Playbook is a practical go-to-market guide for early-stage B2B tech founders, with a companion workbook that turns it into a 90-day plan.
Paperback and Kindle · Companion Workbook on Amazon (ebook now, paperback soon) · Free printable PDF and Google Sheet trackers
Written for founders who are still the whole go-to-market team
You have a working product, a handful of customers, maybe a few paying ones. You are doing the selling yourself, and you are trying to find a way to win customers that you can repeat. This book is for that stage: roughly your first hundred customers.
It is written for founders building:
- SaaS and software platforms
- Cybersecurity products
- AI-driven products
- Health technology
- Tech-enabled manufacturing
You don't have a machine yet. You have a hypothesis.
Most go-to-market advice is written for companies that already know who buys, why they buy, and how to reach them. Early on, you're still figuring that out. So founders hire a sales leader too soon, try five channels at once, underprice to remove friction, and fill dashboards that don't drive decisions. Startup Growth 001 helps you do the work in the right order: learn who your buyer is, write down what works, and turn it into a process someone else can eventually run.
What you'll learn
Chapter 2
Positioning Before Tactics.
Decide how buyers should understand what you are before you spend on any channel.
Chapter 3
Drawing the Map.
Build an ideal customer profile and buyer map narrow enough to build a target list against.
Chapter 4
Founder-Led Sales.
Run sales conversations that teach you what makes customers buy.
Chapter 5
Picking One Channel (Not Five).
Choose one acquisition channel and test it properly.
Chapter 6
A Repeatable Motion.
Turn what works into a one-page sales playbook.
Chapter 7
Pricing as a Learning Tool.
Treat price as something to test, not a number to defend.
Chapter 8
The Metrics That Matter.
Track six numbers tied to decisions, not a dashboard of twenty.
Chapter 9
Your First GTM Hire.
Know when you're ready to hire, and who to hire first.
Built to be used, not just read
Two founders, side by side. Rex and Phoebe face the same decisions and get very different results, so you can see where the paths split.
Worksheets, scripts, and templates in every chapter, ready to use with your next customer conversation.
AI prompts that speed up the research, analysis, and writing in each chapter.
A short list of tools to start with in every chapter, and what to avoid for now.
Ten appendices, including a 90-day traction plan you can start tomorrow.
Choose your format
The Book
Startup Growth 001: The Early Traction Playbook
The full playbook: nine chapters, the Rex and Phoebe stories, and ten appendices of templates.
Paperback $14.99 · Kindle $4.99
The Companion Workbook
Startup Growth 001: Companion Workbook. The 90-Day Founder Traction Plan
Thirteen weeks, one job per week. Every tool from the book in one place, with room to write. Bring it to workshops or work through it with your team.
Ebook available now · Paperback coming soon
Get the workbook on AmazonFree Digital Workbook + Google Sheet
The printable PDF version of the workbook, plus a Google Sheet with the Weekly Activity, Channel, Pricing Test, and First-100 Customers trackers.
Get the free 90-Day Founder Traction Plan
Download the printable workbook and get your own copy of the Google Sheet trackers. Work through one week at a time, alongside the book.
Read the series in order, or start where you are
Frequently asked questions
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